1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope, and in particular, to an endoscope including an air-feeding section that feeds a gas from the distal end of an insertion portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
An endoscope has an operation portion to be held by an operator and performs observation of the inside of a body cavity by inserting an insertion portion continuously provided from the operation portion. The operation portion is provided with a universal cable extending from it in the related art, and a connector and the like provided at the distal end of the universal cable are connected to a peripheral apparatus such as a light source device or a processor and used. Therefore, the use range of the related-art endoscope is limited by the length of the universal cable, so that free movement while using the endoscope is impossible. In addition, during operation of the operation portion, the universal cable becomes entangled and obstructs the operation, resulting in low operability.
To solve this problem, an endoscope having no cable to connect the peripheral apparatus and the endoscope has been proposed. For example, in JP-A-2003-52620 and JP-A-2003-70737, endoscopes including an air/water-feeding pump, a water tank, and a pump-driving battery attached to the operation portion are described.
However, the endoscopes of JP-A-2003-52620 and JP-A-2003-70737 are large in consumption of the battery for driving the air/water-feeding pump, so that it needs a large-sized battery. In addition, the large-sized battery and the air/water-feeding pump increase the weight of the operation portion, resulting in poor portability and operability.